One thousand gifts (part three)

I continue the wonderful experience of counting my life's blessings, linking to Ann Voskamp's gratitude community:


I am grateful also for:
39. on 23rd of February I was blessed for the 2nd time in my life to hold a positive pregnancy test
40. on 26th of February I have heard from my gynecologist that the embryo is well placed and: "look, there is cardiac activity"
41. around 05th of May I started to feel baby's movements
42. on 18th of May, after some days of self-induced stress, as I wasn't feeling baby moves, the gynecologist confirmed once again that everything is fine and that "it's a girl! 100% sure."
43. there, in the consulting room I heard Adrian saying "may SHE be healthy!", in the purest frustration-free voice, although he hoped for a boy for the 2nd time
44. echographs
45. Ilaria's tenderness, when I point out to my belly and I ask her to hug and kiss the little baby from inside
46. the beautiful woman that reminded me to pray when I am overwhelmed
47. the smell in my kitchen, when roasting eggplants for salad
48. daydreaming of a holiday
49. a new haircut
50. warm days of spring
51. friends who encourage me to make changes ( million thanks, Luminiţa! she's the girl behind my new haircut :-) )

Have a blessed week!
Raluca

P.S.: My previous "One thousand gifts" post can be found here.
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The power of prayer

Yesterday was a tough day here. This was the 3rd time (in passed 3 months I think) when I felt I have no solution for Ilaria's crying. And I'm also not sure about the reason. It's so frustrating to try anything comes to my mind and still not be able to make her stop crying.

We were outside, far away from home. She was in the stroller when the tantrum begun. I've tried everything that crossed my mind those minutes: walking, running, back in the stroller, I offered her water, toys,... I've even ignored her.... Of course in the meantime I was getting angry too, not understanding at all what could have been so wrong with her.

Then she stopped in the middle of a not so crowded street, still crying. And I was looking her from a distance, talking to her, when a couple of old people approached. The woman took Ilaria up, on her arms and she brought Ilaria to me. Then she asked me: "What's wrong with her? She doesn't want to leave the park and go home, isn't it?". "No!" I've answered "We haven't been in the park at all. We are just walking around. I really don't know what she wants. She doesn't want to walk and she doesn't want to stay in the stroller either." Then, before leaving, the woman leaned to me as you do when you want to tell somebody a secret and she whispered in my ear: "Recite for her <<Our Father>>". And I did. Right there, in the middle of that street, with tears running down my cheeks. Of course part of them were tears of frustration, but there were also tears of gratitude for that beautiful woman who cared enough to give a good advice to an overwhelmed mother.

I'm not sure how much the prayer helped Ilaria directly, but for sure it helped me a lot to calm down and to see the situation from another perspective. I put her back in the stroller, started making her aware of all the doves, cats and dogs around us and gave her flowers and leaves to play with. And soon she calmed down too!

So yes, it's true: no song, no toy, no argument has the power of a prayer! All it takes is to believe.

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What did Ilaria do lately

To all my fans out there, especially to my family: please excuse my late laziness (let's call like this the lack of time I struggle lately).
Here I am back with a post about Ilaria's activity over the past 2 months. I have to mention that Ilaria is much more active than you can read from this blog. But her "lazy" mamma is not using her camera at it's true possible value. Oh, these mammas.... They never succeed to do everything in time and to please everybody...


So let's start!


Immediately when weather seemed to be sunny and good (end of March) we wanted to take advantage of outside activities. On a too windy day we took a trip on hills around Mărcuş:

Ilaria was happy to dig in the ground with bare-hands. As a total coincidence, 2 days later we realized she caught a cold. Fortunately she got better, without fever!


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She loves clothes. And she takes any opportunity to show us this thing. Here presenting some ballerina USA  fashion:

As you can see, in the meantime she cut her hair. Or, to tell the whole truth: her hair was cut by her clumsy left-handed mother. But Ilaria is still confident. She knows that hair is just an accessory and a cute girl stays cute any haircut she would get ;-)


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She also loves adrenaline. Here dangerously playing with daddy,

this time proudly wearing vintage daddy's trousers, more than 30 years of age :-)


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On Easter Holiday Ilaria enjoyed nature a lot, at Sighisoara, together with her relatives:
She participated for the first time at Easter eggs crashing championship,
where winner of the year was my grandmother:



Also in Easter Holiday we've visited a great place near Sighisoara, Hanul Dracula (http://www.dracul.ro/). It worth to pay a visit there. Nature is wonderful  and for children is quite good, as they have some animals to be seen.


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Here is how Ilaria lived the wedding moment (William & Kate's):

She was busy waving them back a lot :-) So, fortunately, she didn't notice mommy's emotions.. We wish them a very happy and long life together!


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Ilaria presenting some more fashion on Petru T.'s baptizing day, on her first day ever with only 10 minutes nap over the day!

    (30th April 2011)


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Two Sundays ago we were fortunate to witness an ad hoc concert held by tens of tenors and sopranos, on Noua lake:
We were amazed by the show!


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Again Ilaria showing us some US fashion, on Anca M.'s wedding day, on Ilaria's first day ever with 0 minutes nap over the day!!

    (07th May 2011)


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And last but not least: Ilaria is patiently waiting for a brother or a sister :-)



Kisses from us!
Ralu & Co.
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